Stimulated by the discovery of a number of close-in low-density planets, we generalise the Jeans escape parameter taking hydrodynamic and Roche lobe effects into account. We furthermore define Λ as the value of the Jeans escape parameter calculated at the observed planetary radius and mass for the planet's equilibrium temperature and considering atomic hydrogen, independently of the atmospheric temperature profile. We consider 5 and 10 M ⊕ planets with an equilibrium temperature of 500 and 1000 K, orbiting early G-, K-, and M-type stars. Assuming a clear atmosphere and by comparing escape rates obtained from the energy-limited formula, which only accounts for the heating induced by the absorption of the high-energy stellar radiation, and from a hydrodynamic atmosphere code, which also accounts for the bolometric heating, we find that planets whose Λ is smaller than 15-35 lie in the "boiloff" regime, where the escape is driven by the atmospheric thermal energy and low planetary gravity. We find that the atmosphere of hot (i.e. T eq 1000 K) low-mass (M pl 5 M ⊕ ) planets with Λ < 15-35 shrinks to smaller radii so that their Λ evolves to values higher than 15-35, hence out of the boil-off regime, in less than ≈500 Myr. Because of their small Roche lobe radius, we find the same result also for hot (i.e. T eq 1000 K) higher mass (M pl 10 M ⊕ ) planets with Λ < 15-35, when they orbit M-dwarfs. For old, hydrogen-dominated planets in this range of parameters, Λ should therefore be ≥15-35, which provides a strong constraint on the planetary minimum mass and maximum radius and can be used to predict the presence of aerosols and/or constrain planetary masses, for example.

Context. Transmission spectroscopy has become a prominent tool for characterizing the atmospheric properties on close-in transiting planets. Recent observations have revealed a remarkable diversity in exoplanet spectra, which show absorption signatures of Na, K and H 2 O, in some cases partially or fully attenuated by atmospheric aerosols. Aerosols (clouds and hazes) themselves have been detected in the transmission spectra of several planets thanks to wavelength-dependent slopes caused by the particles' scattering properties. Aims. We present an optical 550 -960 nm transmission spectrum of the extremely irradiated hot Jupiter WASP-103b, one of the hottest (2500 K) and most massive (1.5 M J ) planets yet to be studied with this technique. WASP-103b orbits its star at a separation of less than 1.2 times the Roche limit and is predicted to be strongly tidally distorted. Methods. We have used Gemini/GMOS to obtain multi-object spectroscopy throughout three transits of WASP-103b. We used relative spectrophotometry and bin sizes between 20 and 2 nm to infer the planet's transmission spectrum.Results. We find that WASP-103b shows increased absorption in the cores of the alkali (Na, K) line features. We do not confirm the presence of any strong scattering slope as previously suggested, pointing towards a clear atmosphere for the highly irradiated, massive exoplanet WASP-103b. We constrain the upper boundary of any potential cloud deck to reside at pressure levels above 0.01 bar. This finding is in line with previous studies on cloud occurrence on exoplanets which find that clouds dominate the transmission spectra of cool, low surface gravity planets while hot, high surface gravity planets are either cloud-free, or possess clouds located below the altitudes probed by transmission spectra.